The Bicentilune

Howdy all! I was reviewing the reviews over in the Lunar Science Fiction thread in the Forums, and realized that once you add up all of the constituent stories I was finally at over 200 to date. I know it’s hard to believe that enough people have found the Moon sufficiently interesting as to actually write a story about it, but there are many more left to go in the Lunar Library, and I’m unearthing more all of the time.

To help make it easier, I’ve divided the stories into very rough categories. No claim is made as to the accuracy of the categorizations. The basic rules of the road are that clicking on the story title will take you to the review featuring that story. From the review you should be able to link through to the ‘file card’ in the Lunar Library (a lot of the short stories won’t have one – yet), where you can find more information on the work. Some of the stories with expired copyrights are available online. Earlier on in the project I was also linking through to other websites through a ‘Would You Like to Know More?’ link.

A note on the grading system, which is probably confusing at first glance. The ratings go from New to Quarter (or crescent), to half (or first-quarter) to three-quarter (or gibbous) to Full Moon. Purists will note that crescent, first quarter and gibbous would be the correct terms to use, but the quarter, half and three quarter designations are meant to denote the extent of Full-ness. (When the Moon is lit on the right half, it’s first quarter Moon, and when it’s lit on the left half it’s third quarter) Books for children are judged on a lesser scale, since they’re not really at the same level as adult books. While an average adult book would be a half Moon, an average kids book would be a quarter Moon.

These 5 basic ratings are refined in two ways:
(i) as waxing (a bit better than) or waning (not quite as good as), and
(ii) as at perigee (an outstanding example in that category) or at apogee (a not so good example of that category).

So a New Moon at apogee rating is a particularly bad book, while a Full Moon at perigee is a particularly fine story – well crafted, free of errors, good character and plot development, portrays good moral values and ethics, conveys a lot of Lunar knowledge, and so forth. A waxing half Moon would be a bit better than average story. ‘Jason X: Death Moon’ is a good example of the New Moon (it is the one story I haven’t bothered to waste my time finishing), ‘Moonwake’ is a fine example of a Full Moon.

Good editing is important (and worth paying for), and I consider misspellings in children’s stories to be unconscionable. Many a story, especially, but certainly not exlusively, by the independently published authors has dropped a notch or two (or more) because of mistakes. To their credit, many authors have gone back and revised their texts. It probably stings, but I think most recognize that I try to be impartial and objective in my reviews, and a fair critique helps lead to better results all around.

Some may be wondering why I’m bothering to review Moon stories, and the short answer is that I intend to write a book about the Moon in science fiction after I’m done, and these reviews are my working notes. I’ve got about 50-60, maybe more stories in the Lunar Library, and I know of others that I’m looking for. A print copy of Daniel Defoe’s ‘The Consolidator’ is a good example, and there are older sci fi mags with Moon stories in them that I have yet to discover. So there are at least 100 more to go.

There you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen, over 200 stories of adventure on our Moon. Before folks start whining about “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” or any others that I’ve missed, I will only say that “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” is not the only, or even necessarily best, story of adventure on the Moon found in the Lunar Library. As noted, I still have many more to go, so stay tuned for further updates…